Search+for+Meaning+in+America+Topic+1

Topic
toc **Novels/Dramas:** //Our Town// by Thornton Wilder and/or //Jonathan Livingston Seagull// by Richard Bach **Theme:** Search for Meaning in America

Students will reflect on the emerging theme, "search for meaning in America" through the reading and analyzing of drama and novels. Students will continue to use comparing and contrasting, inferencing, and interpreting techniques to cite textual evidence to support the emerging theme through the author's style and techniques. A dramatic character sketch, an explanatory essay, an analysis essay, a monologue, a journal entry, a script of a scene for a television show, and a multimedia presentation are some of the highights of this topic.

Common Core Standards

 * RL.11-12.4**: Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics
 * RL. 11-12.5:** Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text(e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
 * RI.11-12.6:** Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective
 * RL.11-12.6:** Analyze how style and content contribute to the power, persuasivenessess, or beauty of the text
 * RL.11-12.1:** Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly
 * RL.11-12.3:** Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem, evaluating how each version interprets the source text
 * RI.11-12.2:** Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis
 * RI.11-12.2:** Provide an objective summary of the text
 * RI.11-12.9:** Analyze seventeenth, eighteenth, and ninteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance
 * W.11-12.1**: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topic or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
 * W.11-12.2:** Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content
 * W.11-12.3:** Write narrative to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences
 * W.11-12.4:** Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
 * W.11-12.6:** Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information
 * W.11-12.8:** Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources,using advanced searches effectively
 * SL.11-12.1:** Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions(one-on-one, in groups,) with diverse partners on grades 11 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
 * SL.11-12.3:** Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal task
 * SL.11-12.2:** Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in __order__ to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data
 * SL.11-12.3:** Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
 * SL.11.12.5**: Make strategic use of digital media( e.g. textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding fo findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
 * SL. 11-12.6:** Adapt a speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
 * L.11-12.1:**Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
 * L.11-12.3**: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
 * L.11-12.4:** Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11-12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
 * L.11-12.5:** Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
 * L.11-12.6:** Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level.
 * L11-12.6:** Demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression

Suggested Student Objectives

 * Make precise determinations about the perspective of the text **RI.11-12.2, SL.11-12.3**
 * Interpret and analyze text to evaluate the accuracy of the source **SL.11-12.2, SL.11-12.2**
 * Write original pieces regarding a quote from the texts **W.11-12.3,** **RL.11-12.3**
 * Evaluate the concept of staging versus setting in a drama **RL.11-12.3**
 * Examine details used in descriptive writing **W.11-12.4**
 * Analyze the organizational pattern(cause and effect, compare and contrast, sequences) as introduced in texts **RL.11-12.4**
 * Analyze an author's use of style and tone as a contributing factor to the beauty of the text**. RL.11-12.6**
 * Identify existing social problems as described by the authors**. W.11-12.1, W.11-12.3.**

Suggested Additional Readings

 * From //Walden by// Henry David Thoreau- Prentice Hall //Literature: The American Experience,// pages 282-288
 * From //Nature// Ralph Waldo Emerson-bPrentice Hall //Literature: The American Experience,// pages 268-269
 * __Walden__ An Essay by E.B. White - Prentice Hall //Literature: The American Experience,// pages 816-820
 * Sections from //Main Street// (Sinclair Lewis)- Internet

Resource Links
Prentice Hall //Literature: The American Experience// American Literature.com Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Activities

 * COLLABORATION**
 * Discuss the significance of a recurring motif in a text and share results with peers(//Our Town or Jonathan Livingston Seagull//). **W.11-12.4**
 * Plan and present a dramatic sketch based on one of the novels/dramas in this unit (as a group). **W.11-12.3**
 * Design a brochure to interest people in moving to your "hometown." Highlight its most positive features and acknowledge its problems. Follow the style of one of the texts from this unit(//Our Town,// from //Main Street//, etc.) **W11-12.6, W.11-12.8, SL.11-12.5**
 * As a group, choose and dispute something that one of the authors says, according to your belief, is false. Explain your reasoning using specific textual support**. SL.11-12.2, SL.11-12.1, L.11-12.3**
 * READ**
 * Read and analyze common themes between the novel and the informational text introduced in this unit. **RL.11-12.4**
 * Read informational passages and respond respond to constructed-response questions, independently, as a group, or with a partner. **RL.11-12.1**
 * Read //Our Town// **and/or** //Jonathan Livingston Seagull// and make an analysis to better understand the author's style and techniques **RI.11-12.9,** **RL.11-12.6.**
 * WRITE**
 * Write a monologue incorporating irony as introduced in the novels in this unit. **RL.11-12.3,** **RL. 11-12.5**
 * Create a script of or a scene of a television show, including a family tree, as a cooperative activity, incorporating the theme "search for meaning in America." **SL.11-12.1**
 * Compare and contrast the excerpts from Thoreau's //Walden//, E.B. White's //Walden//, and Emerson's //Nature//, supporting your points with passages from each selection. **W11-12.4**
 * Choose two authors' texts from the unit (a poem and an informational text), and write an explanatory paper on their perspective on the meaning and pursuit of happiness. **RL.11-12.4,** **W.11-12.2**
 * Choose two texts from this unit and write an explanation essay interpreting the theme "search for meaning in America." **RL.11-12.4,** **W.11-12.2**
 * Write a journal entry in the style of one of the authors. **WL.11-12.4**
 * Agree or disagree with the statement that "most people live lives of quiet desperation" and explain why using textual evidence. **W.11-12.3**
 * Write an essay discussing the central theme of one of the texts and thoroughly explain what the author is trying to do. **RI.11-12.2, (W11-12.4)**
 * Relate works in this unit to songs that explore nonconformity ("The Bare Necessities," "Different Drum"). **SL.11-12.3, W.11-12.6, RL11-12.3**

Assessments
The teacher will conduct observations and assistance during class activities. Students will be assessed through responses to oral questioning and appropriate homework assignments. Students' writings will be assessed through the use of a writing rubric based on the specific type of writing. Students' responses to interpretative questions following each reading selection will be graded, either through oral or written responses. Students will complete a check test and/or quiz after the completion of each section of the texts. All oral presentations will be assessed through peer feedback and teacher rubrics and/or comments. A point system will be used to critique journal entries.